desiderate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of desiderate
1635–45; < Latin dēsīderātus (past participle of dēsīderāre to long for, require), equivalent to dē- de- + sīder- (stem of sīdus ) heavenly body, constellation + -ātus -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It seemed also, owing to its height, to desiderate wings, but there were none.
From Ghost Stories of an Antiquary Part 2: More Ghost Stories by James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes)
Archimedes might desiderate a place to stand on before he could bring his lever into play; I would move the world, self-poised.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 55, May, 1862 by Various
The classical dress becomes so thin on such occasions, that even the small degree of illusion which one may fairly desiderate is too rudely interrupted.
From Hours in a Library New Edition, with Additions. Vol. II (of 3) by Stephen, Leslie, Sir
Mind in itself is also intelligible; a pleasure is as intelligible as would be any transmutation of it into the inscrutable essence that people often desiderate.
From Practical Essays by Bain, Alexander
It is the authoritative sentence of the Church then on this difficult subject that we desiderate.
From The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels Being the Sequel to The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels by Miller, Edward
For an oracle, of course, he would have looked in another direction; but he desiderated something more on a level with himself, and that they abundantly supplied.
From Callista : a Tale of the Third Century by Newman, John Henry
Such appeared to me to be the choicer, and more to be desiderated, volumes in the monastic library of Closterneuberg--which a visit of about a couple of hours only enabled me to examine.
From A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three by Dibdin, Thomas Frognall
Here the situation is topsy-turvied in the most curious fashion, for it is the character of marriage that is desiderated in the absence thereof, and in a country where that character itself is scoffed at.
From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by Saintsbury, George
Good swimming is by no means what is wanted; swimming of any kind, however poor, is all that is desiderated.
From The Gorilla Hunters by Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)
Shall we ever have it? or will the irrational conservatism of the educated classes, in all time to come, prevent a consummation so desirable, and so desiderated by the philologist?
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 by Various
That possibility, I need hardly say, is one that, as the actual world goes, we have ample grounds for desiderating.
From Pragmatism by James, William
Desiderā′tion, the act of desiderating: the thing desiderated.—adj.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
Perhaps that which we are desiderating could not be better expressed than by saying that we need a ministry prophetic and apostolic.
From The Preacher and His Models The Yale Lectures on Preaching 1891 by Stalker, James
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
